The Bangor Daily News from Bangor, Maine • 9

MAINE DAY JONIAVERILL YMCA Spring Fair promises fun B4 Obituaries B67 Weather B8 People maples await old-time end making time usually arrive until the 16th or 17th of March said Hall whose Hall Farms Maple Products taps 6600 trees The big difference this year is not so much the air temperature as the thick blanket of snow still on the ground said HalL Using a summertime image to illustrate his point he compares maples to cans of soda sitting in a tub of ice warm the soda if in an ice said HalL trees are in Mother ice Casual observations of this heavy snowfall are bolstered by the official figures! Portland had 862 inches of snow compared with about 41 inches last winter said Eric Schwibs of the National Weather Service The total was a tad ahead of the average of 72 inches of snowfall in southern Maine In Bangor 82 inches of snow had fallen through last Thursday 16 inches above the average to that date But total snowfall farther north in Aroostook County was just about average Because Maine saw no major thaw snow stayed on the ground through the entire winter As of late in the week there were close to 40 inches on the ground toward Fryeburg and 2 to 3 feet in southern and northern Maine Schwibs goes along with those who suggest this was an with snow that stayed on the ground instead of melting See Winter Page B6 to 4 feet of snow on the ground at the Maple Hill Farm in Farming-ton where Donna Tracy certain whether she would be able to coax anything from the taps on her hard-frozen trees an old-fashioned winter a winter that we had in a long time not used to said Tracy 65 who remembers her grandfather telling her about the days when the sap flow until mid-March As recently as 1989 maple syrup tions been in the East Dixfield area Mainers have grown accustomed to early-March warm-ups during the last four years or so that have gotten the sap flowing much earlier than it will this year is more like a traditional Maine winter and Maine said Hall who expects to see sap in the last week of March or first week of April as it did years back In the days leading up to Nature Maple Sunday there were at least 3 By Glenn Adams The Associated Press The season that ends this week at least on the calendar is being dubbed by many Mainers as an old-fashioned winter For those who say it harks back to old times the weather forecasters agree And so do the maple trees not running at all said Rodney Hall whose family has run a maple syrup business for at least four of the eight genera Design flaws halt work on i levee Fort Fairfield project stalled due to frozen outflow pipes By Debra Sund Ol the NEWS Staff FORT FAIRFIELD A month before the traditional spring thaw work has stalled on the levee built along the Aroostook River to protect Fort business district A design flaw caused the outflow pipes in the pump station to freeze during the winter Town Manager Dan Foster said Sunday that the designer the Army Corps of Engineers has informed town officials they will be billed for the extra work needed to correct the problem was absolutely said Foster referring to the notification about the additional cost The pipes which carry water from a stream leading to the river during the spring were buried slightly below water level Foster said that the Fort Fairfield Town Council was with the news and directed him to contact the congressional delegation regarding the issue In a statement issued late Friday Sen Olympia Snowe urged the corps to take the financial responsibility for its mistake is unconscionable to me that these design flaws could have been made by the corps particularly since Fort Fairfield is located above the 46th parallel in northern Maine where the river freezes each fall and stays frozen well into Snowe said in a letter to Col Brian Ostrndorf district engineer for the New England district intend to hold the corps accountable in fixing this egregious Snowe wrote Snowe said that work on the levee has been halted while the corps redesigns the pump station and completes additional work to new specifications She said she considers unacceptable the proposal that the town of Fort Fairfield assume 35 percent of the additional costs The levee was constructed on a cost-sharing basis with the federal government paying 65 percent According to Foster the corps has instructed the builder Pelletier Construction to rent six highspeed pumps for about three weeks to accommodate the-spring runoff That could cost up to $100000 Foster said After the spring thaw the pipes have to be torn out and replaced the town manager explained Foster said that the design flaw was brought to the attention by the construction company and the manufacturer corps just said we will be said Foster When Foster attempted to talk to the corps about the problem just blew me off 7 1 have no accountability" said Foster In her statement Snowe Said expect a response at your very earliest convenience to explain hotoyou will settle this matter andensure that the town does hot spend one more penny on thjs The levee was built to prevent severe flooding during the spring thaw A flood on April 15 1994 brought water to historic levels in Fort Fairfield devastating the downtown area and demonstrating that a flood-control levee was required Paul Weiss practices Qigong an ancient Chinese form of healing energy through meditative movement to cultivate health and'longevity Weiss has been to China five times to study the science and teaches it at The Whole Health Center in Bar Harbor He is leading a trip to China with a group in May (NEWS Photo by Miller Pearsall) Ancient Chinese practice cultivates life balance By Misty Edgecomb Of the NEWS Staff BAR HARBOR IJaul Weiss believes that good health for the 21st century lies not in wonder drugs or stem cell therapy but in an ancient Chinese lifestyle with awareness of the body and spirit at its core of us are out of touch with our Weiss says attention is scattered everywhere in a very random and distracted Weiss has joined millions of Chinese in reviving a traditional combination of meditation deep breathing and slow-motion movements known today as Qigong to cultivate this life balance about re-establishing the connections between the environment our minds and our Weiss said In May Weiss will lead a group of 20 Mainers to study Qigong with master practitioner Wan Sujian at the Chinese Taoist Medical Institute and Hospital in Beijing Qi pronounced is the Chinese term for the energy of life that courses through people animals and the natural environment Gong (pronounced is translated as effort or work Thus Qigong is using the energy to do work Weiss said According to traditional Chinesemedicine sickness is caused by congested energy (or qi) that manifests itself in the symptoms such as pain or tumors that Western doctors view as diseases Balance the energy and the sickness disappears Weiss said medicine as compared to Western medicine seems very unscientific But it comes from a systematic understanding of how energy moves through the Weiss said describing centuries of empirical study is probably as old as Chinese civilization such a rich tradition there are probably millions of different styles and The marriage of rhythmic exercises and meditation should be done every day to strengthen the qi for optimum health Weiss said Strengthening the qi is said to reduce stress and promote mental well-being as well as keeping the systems in top shape separate the physical from the meditation side of Weiss said kinds of Qigong are ways of bringing together stillness and Weiss demonstrated taking a relaxed stance and gracefully sweeping his arms from side to side as he spoke mind gets very open and relaxed this sense of light You end up feeling very spacious and he said The effectiveness of holistic medicine like Qigong has been demonstrated in biological studies that increasingly show a relationship between mental and physical function chemistry of thought is intimately connected to the physical chemistry of the Weiss said See China Page B5 Details of fatal police shooting probed Scarborough man killed by multiple gunshot wounds in store parking lot Stockholm store included in register of historic places By Debra Sund a the NEWS Staff STOCKHOLM The first general store in Stockholm built a century ago when the small town was a hub of economic activity has been entered in the National Register of Historic Places The Anderson Brothers Store located on the corner of Main and Lake streets was the first establishment to serve the needs of the residents as well as the various wood mills built along the Madawaska Stream which flows through the community quite an honor for the said John Hede a member of the board of directors for the Stockholm Historical Society on Saturday The building now the museum houses the historical collections Construction began in 1900 by brothers John and Lewis Anderson who had moved from neighboring' New Sweden to begin the Stockholm business A 20-by-20 foot building was built at first with additions and modification made later impetus for their business venture is undoubtedly related to the fact that Stockholm Plantation was See Store Page B5 al and physical abuse at the Gov Baxter School for the Deaf A year ago he testified before legislators that he was a student in state-run schools for the deaf in Portland and Falmouth between 1949 and 1957 He said abuse he suffered contributed to lifelong depression suicidal urges and violent outbursts feel like this has destroyed my life I have gone through hell because of he said at the time Authorities said events that led to the fatal shooting began shortly after' 3 pm Friday when police were notified that a man wit ha rifle was pacing back and forth in the parking lot of the busy shopping plaza at OalfHill MacMaster said the -man apparently had pulled (into the lot in a white van festooned with handwritten messages relating to the rights of the deaf As police cordoned off the area The Associated Press SCARBOROUGH An investigation continued this weekend into the fatal police shooting of a man with a rifle who was involved in a standoff in the parking lot of a Shop Save supermarket off US Route 1 An autopsy determined that James Levier 60 of Scarborough was killed by multiple gunshot wounds was struck five said Brian MacMaster director of investigations for the state Attorney Office MacMaster said state investigators were seeking to confirm details of what police described as an exchange of gunshots between Levier and law enforcement officers in which Levier was hit after firing first Friday Levier had participated with a group of people seeking compensation from the state for alleged sexu- shoppers inside the supermarket and other stores in the shopping plaza were told to remain indoors An interpreter had arrived and police were trying to arrange a safe way for that person to communicate with Levier when the shooting occurred authorities said Police initially said that Levier fired one shot and that three Scarborough officers and a state trooper returned fire But Scarborough Police Chief Robert Moulton said Saturday that the sequence of events has not been think any time you have this I kind of a situation where somebody loses a life Moulton said officers are always going to second-guess no matter what the in this business to save lives and help people and this kind of goes against the Moulton said No one else was injured See Shooting Page B6 i I Shirley Sjostedt sorts through pairs of aid hose at the Stockholm Historical Museum which once housed Anderson Brothers Store the first general store in the town The building recently was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NEWS Photo by Debra Sund) i I.